Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

Conspiracy theories

There are people in the USA (and here) who believe fervently that the US 
Government has an alien space ship and some genuine dead aliens preserved 
in an aircraft hangar in Roswell. To avoid panic (why would there be panic, 
for goodness sake?) the public are kept in the dark about this momentous 
discovery or event or whatever it is suppposed to be.

There are also people in the USA (not so much here) who believe that agents 
of the United Nations fly around the US in black helicopters kidnapping 
people and generally enforcing the rule of "one world government".

And there are people who believe the ruling class in the US, is utilising 
the various intelligence agencies, the military, the FBI, organised crime 
when expedient and the private operatives of the big corporations, to 
frame, railroad, smear and physically assassinate people who obstruct their 
plans.

One of these three beliefs is justified and true. The other two are 
crackpot theories with no basis in fact.

But the two daft ones are extremely useful. They serve to help convince 
people that all three are loopy and not to be taken seriously. That all 
three are merely "conspiracy theories".

As the twentieth century progressed so has the use of "black" propaganda — 
false or misleading information and statements, bogus documents, faked 
photos, even faked medals — to discredit and destabilise political 
movements and governments.

As knowledge grew of the eagerness with which the ruling class used 
professional liars and put its intelligence services to work spreading 
rumours and "disinformation", people began to be increasingly cynical about 
official reports on almost everything.

At the same time they began to comprehend the extent of the ruling class 
conspiracy against progressive thinkers, movements and governments. With so 
much at stake, giant corporations and the governments they dominate, are 
not going to balk at bending a scruple or breaking a moral imperative, or 
killing someone considered dangerous to their continued class rule and 
accumulation of profit.

With imperialist governments, especially the US government, behaving 
deviously, even criminally, and lying through their teeth about it, it is 
hardly surprising that wild rumours not only arise about almost any topic 
of popular interest but, if denied, assume the status of an "official 
conspiracy".

This is also partly the consequence of the deliberate cultivation by the 
ruling class of unscientific thinking on the part of the masses. It is a 
consequence that suits the ruling class down to the ground.

What better way to dismiss someone's evidence of a government sanctioned 
conspiracy against the people than to put on a patronising smile and say of 
the person raising the evidence "He (or she) must have a conspiracy 
theory"?

Derision is such a useful arguing tool, for it does not require actual 
facts to disprove something.

No one wants to be thought gullible, to be identified as someone who can be 
taken in by crackpot conspiracy theories.

The conspiracy theory label is extremely useful to the ruling class. So 
much so, that if the rumours of "conspiracies" did not arise spontaneously, 
it would be necessary for the ruling class to create them. And in more than 
a few cases, that is precisely what they in fact do.

The television program Diana: The Night She Died is a piece of 
investigative journalism from Britain's Channel Five. It was well received 
by the British press, The (London) Guardian commenting that "Woodward and 
Bernstein would have been proud" (refering to the two Washington Post 
journalists who broke the Watergate conspiracy — oops, there's that word 
again).

The filmmakers were given exclusive access to all 27 volumes of the French 
report into the fatal car crash in a Paris road tunnel on the night of 
August 31, 1997 in which Diana was killed. They were in a prime position to 
ask pointed questions of those involved.

They found that key witnesses have been silenced. Others have gone missing. 
Another committed suicide in suspicious circumstances.

Claiming that the French report is fundamentally flawed, the program 
challenges the validity of the claims in the report that Diana's driver 
Henri Paul was drunk and on medication at the time of the crash.

Some of the questions the program raises, although troubling, can perhaps 
be explained away. But, can they?

Why was the scene of the crash scrubbed clean and reopened to traffic 
within four hours, destroying valuable forensic evidence? Was it such an 
important road that it had to be reopened for the morning peak hour 
traffic?

Why was the Traffic Police Investigation not included in the official 
enquiry report? Bureaucracy, perhaps? (What did they include in those 27 
volumes?)

Why was the first witness on the scene ignored and silenced by the police? 
Drunk, hysterical, away with the fairies, or was it that the witness's 
evidence did not suit the authorities?

Why was the autopsy carried out on Henri Paul so blatantly inaccurate? Why 
were Henri Paul's secret service connections never properly explored? The 
questions are no longer so easily explained away.

Why did Diana's ambulance take over an hour to cover the 3-mile distance to 
the hospital? What!

And how does the ABC choose to publicise this program? With the tag line: 
"Compulsory viewing for conspiracy theorists!" Or is there a real life 
conspiracy being covered up?